I remember back in 1989 when I received my first closed captioning machine. My family and I sat in front of the television waiting for the machine to shoot out words by newscasters, TV sitcoms or documentaries. The machines were slow and sometimes they produced garbled or incorrect stories that made no sense. But I was grateful to have the opportunity to watch television again. Of course since 1990 all TVs 13″ or larger are required to include a closed-caption option and this soon made the devices obsolete. In the decade that preceded my closed-captioning experience I watched little television. Many shows were not captioned, and I had difficulty following the words even with assistive devices.

I also had trouble hearing on the telephone, so that created struggles both in the workplace and with staying connected with friends and family. Few people understood about the relay and TTYS. Today, there are several companies that offer captioning for both landline and cell phones. Smartphones have helped to keep Deaf and hard-of-hearing people connected. Some doctors now allow notifications by text or email.

Forget music. I just couldn’t make it out before I received my cochlear implants. It was like I was living in a silent movie.

When I think back to times when my children were growing up, with every year that my hearing loss accelerated, I was inclined to tune out more and more. That was not fair to my family and counterproductive to effectively communicating.

I did my best to “pretend” I was a person who could hear well in the workplace. Some of my work experience includes being an executive assistant who took dictation over the phone from anywhere in the country, event planning that required I function and communicate well at social events in well-known NY City hotels, being the world’s worst real estate agent, working in the time-sensitive corporate world and finally being a college professor with over 30 students in each classroom. By the time I came home from work I was exhausted. There is tremendous energy required for a person with hearing loss to function in a hearing world. At the end of the day, as ironic as it sounds, many people just want to go into a silent world. But that’s no excuse!

One of the hardest things in my opinion is socialization with hearing loss. Hearing loss is often misunderstood, and people don’t know how to react. Some shout at us, others over-annunciate their words. Some say “Never mind” when we don’t hear what is said. Frankly, there are some who find it too much work to communicate with us, but let that be their problem. There are plenty of good people in the world, and we must pick ourselves up and keep moving forward.

We now know that isolating ourselves can cause depression, cognition issues and affect our interpersonal relationships. It does get hard, but hearing loss is a sink-or-swim issue. Stay connected or you will likely suffer repercussions in every area of your life.

After reflecting on all this I have concluded that I am guilty of what so many of us are guilty of. Without realizing it, we resort to a world of solitary confinement. If we truly want to stay connected with our interpersonal connections, in the workplace and with friends, we must reach out, take chances, and be a self advocate. Are you self-imposing a life of solitary confinement because it is easier?

Today, there are so many solutions to improve the quality of life of persons who struggle with hearing loss. In a future blog, I will talk about some of those products and solutions. In the meantime, stay connected and keep listening to all the sounds of life.